Spirit Of America – Final Results

Raised: $55,391.83

Michele has a “thank you” card for donors and volunteers, and Spirit of America founder Jim Hake sends this message to all who participated:

]]>< ![CDATA[

April 29, 2004 Spirit of America – Camp Pendleton II From Jim Hake, president of Spirit of America:

Greetings,

Today we delivered to Marines at Camp Pendleton, CA the equipment that will be used to equip Iraqi-owned and operated television stations in Al Anbar province. On Saturday, May 1 the Marines will fly the equipment from March Air Force Base to Iraq. This initiative and the original request is described here. We try hard to provide rapid response to requests we receive. Here is the timeline of this project:

April 8: SoA receives Marines request for television equipment. April 14: SoA posts the request on our Web site and begins fundraising. April 29: SoA delivers $82,687 of TV studio equipment to Camp Pendleton. April 29: Marines pack donated equipment and prepare for shipment to Iraq. May 1: Marines fly equipment to Iraq.

This rapid turnaround makes a difference in Iraq.

Here is one photo from the event of Col. Robert Knapp, Commanding Officer of the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, and yours truly with a small amount of the gear we provided.

Please check Friday’s Wall St. Journal, Dan Henninger talks about Spirit of America in his column on the editorial. You can find it online here.

We have received $1,532,931 in donations in the last two weeks. Contributions from 7,438 donors have been made to every request and every area of Spirit of America’s operations. I can’t begin to describe the effects this generosity will have on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan – both in helping the people of those countries and in supporting the hard work of those serving there.

As encouraging as the last 14 days have been, I believe we are just at the beginning of seeing homefront support for America’s efforts in Iraq. We’re fortunate to receive emails, letters and handwritten notes from our donors that thank us for finally getting the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution. Since 9/11 many have felt helpless. That no longer need be the case.

You can find more on what’s happened and what’s next here. As promised, we have an accounting there of how the money was spent on the first phase of the Marines TV request.

Alex – thanks – but you aren’t the only one! There was actually a lot that didn’t get credited before they shut it off. Armed Liberal had $200, there was another $200 he knew of, there’s Alex’s $495, and (drumroll, please) Hugh Hewitt’s $4,000. So, I think we did okay folks!

Thanks for what you’ve done – you’ve set an awesome example for others to follow in taking up a challenge like this. An amazing success story for blogs, for America, and for Iraq. For what its worth, you have my salute and my appreciation. Well done sir!